People either love them.
Or people despise them like Aunt Edna's mystery meat casserole.
Our family loves to use them. Oftentimes, it's a competition to determine who's gonna do the scanning, who's gonna do the button pushing, etc.
I usually end up bagging.
Tonight when I was at Kroger ringing the bell at the Salvation Army red kettle, I did some thinking about U-Scan lanes. Yeah, I know.... what a weird thing to think about. Well, Kroger was pretty quiet, and if I don't find something to ponder about, then I start staring thru the window at the Kroger employees.
And that creeps them out.
So, I did some pondering.
What is the business model/theory behind having these lanes?
I came up with a few answers:
- reduced labor cost: 1 employee can manage 6 lanes, and no bagboy is needed at any of the 6
- floor space savings: 6 checkouts take up the same room as 3, maybe 4, normal lanes
- novelty: in this part of the country, Kroger, Meijer and Wal-Mart are the only 3 retailers with U-Scan lanes; that's something they can brag about and claim as something unique to draw people thru the doors
- speed: a person with 1 item can usually check-out in 45-60 seconds
Any you can think of that I missed?
I also see some disadvantages to businesses having these self-service lanes:
- negative publicity related to cuts in headcount because fewer staff are required to operate U-Scan lanes
- lack of interaction with customers
- significant additional theft risk by folks putting stuff in bags without scanning it, or by scanning a $2 item and putting a $10 item in the bag
- customer difficulties: we've all encountered them.... folks in the U-Scan lanes who can barely operate an alarm clock have no idea how to look up the price for their kiwi; this requires additional staff assistance (which helps towards the customer interaction point, but can lead to additional theft at other lanes while the attendant is preoccupied with Mr. How Do I Locate the Barcode) and slows down the operation of the lane
I believe our local K-Fart is the only place that had self-checkouts at one time, then pulled them back out of the store. Other than the stores mentioned above, Ikea utilizes them, and I'm pretty sure that I remember using one at some Target and some Home Depot before.
They are definitely growing in popularity. U-Scans were first introduced (on a trial basis) by Wal-Mart way back in 1996. Fifteen years later, they are still going strong.
One other advantage.... using a U-Scan, you don't get asked the stupid "paper or plastic" question.
Out for now.....
Matt